Consumers demand “fresh-like” and convenient products with preserved nutritional and organoleptic characteristics that can be kept for extended periods of time without compromising safety. This has posed greater challenges to food industries. High-pressure processing (HPP) can improve food safety by destroying the microorganisms that cause food-borne illness and spoilage that cause diseases. It also leads to the reduction of fungal toxic metabolites in food products when combined with moderate temperature. HPP holds promise as an emerging food treatment to process premium value food products while retaining food quality, maintaining natural freshness, and extends microbiological shelf life. This review presents current research findings associated with applying HPP as an emerging technology for microbial and mycotoxin control in the food industry and suggests future work.

Sweet lupine and soybean are legumes of high prospects as functional foods due to their rich protein content and low levels of fat, which sparked increased interest in incorporating these ingredients in food product development. This study aimed to investigate the effect of different levels of sweet lupine and soymilk substitution on the physicochemical and sensory properties of vanilla-flavored ice cream. Characterization of raw materials revealed that higher protein content was obtained in sweet lupine (5.86%) than in soymilk (4.83%) and cow milk (3.40%). However, the crude fat content of sweet lupine was much lower than cow milk and soymilk with values of 1.21%, 4.40% and 5.70%, respectively. Ice cream formulated from sweet lupine exhibited protein content ranging from 4.27 to 4.79% while maximum protein content of 4.39% was obtained for soymilk ice cream. The crude fat content of soymilk ice cream was higher than the sweet lupine ice cream with values of 7.47% and 6.6%, respectively. Formulation of soymilk and sweet lupine ice cream was effective as improved overrun of 84.05% was obtained when compared to 83% of the ice cream made from cow milk. The melting resistance for soymilk:cow milk and for sweet lupine milk:cow milk ice creams at different blend ratios ranged from 83.01 to 84.50% and 83.23 to 84.40%, respectively. The melting resistance increased as the amount of soy and sweet lupine milk increased. Sensory attributes of the formulated ice cream samples were evaluated and the taste and texture were reported to be similar to the ice cream made from cow milk up to 25% replacement. However, the ice cream preference of the panelists decreased with increased addition of soy and sweet lupine. As a result, ice creams made from soymilk and sweet lupine could be utilized as a better alternative to cow milk ice creams.

Red pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) is one of the major spices consumed globally, recognized for its aroma and nutrient properties, and it has a major economic value for high producing countries. However, characterization of its techno-functional properties and in-depth understanding of oxidative stability is needed to produce food of high quality and stability. Thus, this work focused on the chemical, functional, thermal, oxidative stability and rheological properties of red pepper powder and paste. Experiment was designed in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) fashion. The red pepper powder contained 14.50 g/100 g, 44.00 g/100 g and 7.57 g/100 g of crude fat, crude fiber and ash, respectively. The concentration of total phenols, carotenoids and antioxidants activity of the powder were 1.04 g GAE/100 g, 374 mg βc/100 g and 38.61 μmol TE/g, respectively. Functional properties showed lower bulk density (395.1 kg/m³) and higher tapped density (583.4 kg/m³) indicating the higher compressibility of the powder. In contrast, Hausner ratio (1.48), Carr’s index (32%) and angle of repose (45°) indicated poor flowability of the powder. Particle size distribution also indicated that the volume weighted mean values D_[4,3] of the powder and paste were 262.20 and 201.46, respectively. Emulsifying capacity of the powder was 47.5%. Oil and water absorption capacities varied from 1.41 to 1.73 and 0.86 to 2.29 g/g of initial weight, respectively. Higher glass transition temperature was observed for the powder (62.54°C) than the paste (45.64°C). The induction period indicated that red pepper was more stable against oxidation in powder (5.2 h) than in the paste form (3.2 h). Rheological analysis revealed that the paste exhibited shear-thinning behavior. Overall, understanding of the properties of red pepper could contribute to enhance quality. Graphical abstract